Superheating instability in a pulsed xenon discharge

It is shown that previously obtained conditions for superheating instability substantially vary if we take into account secondary xenon ionization. Instability completely vanishes if the density of heavy particles in the discharge is kept constant and whenever a discontinuous time variation of temperature T in a restricted region between 15 · 10³ ° K and 20 · 10³ ° K is possible for a constant effective pressure. The development of instability is studied numerically by a ranging method. Stationary temperature distributions possessing a high contrast as a local temperature passes through a given range of instability with constant pressure are presented.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 1, pp. 27–30, January–February, 1976.